Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Pairing Down

Spring is in the air and we locals call it "mud season". It's a great time to get out and enjoy new sounds like Sandhill Cranes in the wetlands and Spring Peepers in the bogs. It's also a time when local businesses gather up last year's information and plan for a new cycle. It's a little slow right now. Many of our peers close for a bit.

For the next several weeks we'll be operating on a paired down menu to increase our efficiency and to decrease the enormous amount of prep we do to maintain our 'buy it local or make it here' attitude.  We are also contemplating a short shut down, and will get the word out as best as we can once we've made a decision.

We'll be in full swing for Memorial weekend at the end of May, and we'll keep enough signature items on the menu in the interim so we don't lose the essence of Rock River Cafe'. If you're out for a spring drive and would like to stop in, give us a ring to check our hours. 906-439-5509

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Burgers and Fries

Delux Burger with Steak Fries.


The bun is baked about 12 miles down the road at Trenary Toast, Inc..  Lean ground beef and potatoes are from Bahrman Farm in Rumely, just a handful of miles in the other direction. We hand cut the potatoes, season them, and grill them in olive oil and butter. And as seasons shift and change, the produce that lives in the bun with that marvelous burger evolves as well, coming from local farmers. I watched John put some fresh local spinach in sandwiches today that was delivered last night from Rock River Farm. The price for this wonderful little lunch is $7.75. Relax. Enjoy.

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Thanks for the Rosemary

Today one of our regular customers was in for the egg sandwich (a little one egg omelet encompassing freshly shredded sharp cheddar cheese and Vollwerth's hickory smoked bacon from the Keewanau Peninsula, folded into Huron Mountain bread from Marquette). With her was some rosemary she is growing indoors right now. She offered some up, and we were grateful for it. We offer rosemary rub with bleu cheese on our steaks at night. It's wonderful to get some that's been picked today, rubbed on your steak tonight. When the first order came in for it, I admit that I quickly offered to dive into the fresh rosemary right away to help get the steak ready for the flame.

It's those wonderful little things that make our cafe' operation so pleasurable.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Meat and Potatoes

We are fortunate, oh so fortunate and grateful that there is a farmer just up the road who sells us ground beef and potatoes every week to cook and serve for you. We drive over to Bahrman Farm and pick up big bags of (un-sprayed) potatoes and their ground beef that's been processed at a USDA inspected facility in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and returned to Bahrman's for sale to us. It's beef from their cows; it's just that simple. And though we take for granted that concept of simplicity, what apparently lurks in the corporate food world  is not quite as simple. Do we really want our food so engineered? When I look at a plate of food in our restaurant, I realize that I can visually see almost all of our ingredients almost all of the time. That's because there aren't any packages lurking in the back, filled with numerous unrecognizable ingredients. 

We make most everything from recipe. Often we'll have a guest with a particular allergy or dietary restriction, and though almost always I feel sure about all of our ingredients, I'll still walk in the back, grab the recipe, and go over it with the customer.  If it does include a complex ingredient, such as ketchup, the jug comes with me so we can discuss all of the details.  Digestion has to be better if one's really sure about what one's eating. We read the ingredients on a well known national cheesecake in a store the other night. The list was as big as this paragraph. Really? We use six ingredients, and, OMG it's fantastic! Our caramel sauce? Two ingredients on the stove. That's it. No more. Your hot cocoa? Four ingredients. Simple stuff.

Two things have been true since we opened: 

"Simplicity" tastes so much better.

"Local" is consistently higher quality than the alternative.

Stop in. Relax.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Even the Oatmeal

Just had the oatmeal. I love breakfast late at night. And I love our oatmeal. I picked up the bulk bag from the Marquette Food Co-op where I am an "owner"; organic, slow cook, just the way we like it.

We toss the big flakes of organic oatmeal into the boiling water with a dash of kosher salt, and set the timer. While that's simmering, we chop up the Michigan apples, toss them in with dried tart cherries from Shoreline Fruit in cherry country Michigan, and sprinkle some cinnamon. We'll toss in some pecan halves if you'd like. Now we serve it up with a big pat of butter on the plate beneath the bowl, a pitcher of milk (soy is available), and a jug of pure local maple syrup from Rock River Sugar Bush. We use syrup rather than brown sugar because it's local, and it's so darn good. It's a big bowl. You're full when you leave.

What pairs well with it? A big glass of DeBacker Family Dairy milk, poured from a glass jug, and a laptop signed into the WIFI.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

A Little Bit About Bread

We are grateful for the wonderful feedback we receive from visitors to the cafe' from distant places. Simple things get noticed: the homemade hot cocoa, the light fluffy crust~less cheesecake, the local ground beef.

At almost ten months into the business, we grow into forgetfulness about what is different about the food we serve at Rock River Cafe'. We forget to mention that we use only butter and olive oil to prepare your food. We forget that people actually are unaware of those other products that may show up in a #10 can and be used to paint corporate toast in most dining choices. Then something jars our memory.

We currently feature local bread baked in three locations within about a half hour of the cafe. The bakers use quality ingredients, local employees, and create breads unique to this area. Lake Superior Wild Sourdough from Huron Mountain Bread Company rises with yeast airborne on the southern shore of Lake Superior. It's a local ingredient one wouldn't expect. We also serve "Limpu", a traditional local bread loved by Finns and Swedes alike, crafted with rye meal in the Trenary Toast bakery just down the road. Our kid friendly bread is the Amish White, baked with care from high quality Sir Galahad Flour at Sweet Dreams Bakery. Toast for breakfast? It will be painted with pure butter, and served with preserves cooked on our stove with a low sugar recipe, soft, with no pectin. We also have a beautiful marble rye, 7 grain, and Italian to choose from.

In the evening, we package those breads into one very special place, using loads of pure vanilla, and then douse it with a sweet buttery whiskey sauce...